Who's Getting More?

RAY: As you might guess, Tom and I have a signed contract with National Public Radio. Thank God it's signed, or we'd be out on our sorry butts.

And, as you might expect, we each get paid the same amount of money every week. But there are provisions in the contract that allow NPR to either reward us or punish us financially.

Last year, Tommy got a raise of 10 percent. I think they cited two things that primarily were responsible for that: perfect attendance and improved grooming. And I got a pay cut of 10 percent. The reason they gave was "poor puzzler performance."

This year, however, they raised my salary by 10 percent, and they had the good sense to reduce Tommy's by 10 percent.